An accident investigations board is scheduled to meet Tuesday to decide the cause of a fatal cargo plane crash that has become the focus of dispute between UPS and its pilot union over whether work schedules are inducing fatigue and jeopardizing safety.
The National Transportation Safety Board is also expected to make safety recommendations based on the crash of UPS Flight 1354 on Aug. 14, 2013, during a landing approach in Birmingham, Alabama. The plane clipped the tops of trees and then slammed into a hillside just shy of an airport runway. The pilots, who were killed, had complained about fatiguing work schedules.
The pilots union wants Federal Aviation Administration work schedule regulations that apply to passenger airline pilots to also apply to cargo pilots, but UPS opposes that.
